When was the last time you were at a flea market? I mean a real, genuine, piles-of-weird-shit flea market? I feel like it’s been too long for me. Part of why I think this is because I can still see bits of floor in my basement office/workshop that isn’t currently covered by car parts or a 40-year-old computer or video game console, which is a problem flea markets can be quite good at addressing. Also, there’s the fact that one of our Autopian members, who goes by the name Dogapult (who also once sent me a fantastic T-shirt from Madagascar’s best carmaker) found a remarkable Video CD in a Chinese flea market and shared it on the Discord. This Video CD (the format itself is interesting, we’ll get to that) is some sort of Shanghai-Volkswagen promo/intro video for the Santana 2000 GSi, which is itself is a second-gen VW Passat via VW Brazil.
The whole strange afterlife of these outdated Passats in China is pretty fascinating; in many ways, China’s production of VW Santanas became a template and helped build the foundations for China’s whole motor industry. They started by building Santanas from CKD kits in 1983, and they built 10,000 of them by 1986, with the locally-sourced parts percentage at 6%. By 1995, the percentage was 89%, which was the result of the rapid growth of Chinese auto-part companies, spurred by the desire to make as much as possible in China.
The Santana was updated a number of times, still on the same basic B2 Passat platform that started in 1981. The Brazilian variant used to make the Chinese Santana was then modified further by Shangai-VW in 1991, gaining a longer wheelbase and wider rear doors, modifications that also made them a popular choice for taxis. This new Santana was called the Santana 2000, and it’s a version of this car – complete with a 1.8-liter engine making 99 horsepower – that this video is all about.
So this video: Dogapult mentions he found it on a VCD, which is a Video Compact Disk – does anyone remember this format? It started in 1993, and was a way to store about 74 minutes of video on a regular CD. It used the then-new MPEG-1 encoding format, and was more popular in Asia and some developing nations. Eventually, it was phased out because writable CD burners made piracy too easy, and then the DVD and Blu-Ray formats eventually replaced it, with better video quality and the ability to store longer movies. So that’s just kind of a weird artifact of the era on its own!
[Ed note: I still have a sleeve of VCDs of the show ‘Sports Night’ somewhere. – MH]
Here’s what Dogapult had to say about his score:
I’ve got a treat for you guys. I bought a VCD while in China at a flea market. It was an introduction to the VW Santana 2000 GSi. I will admit, I used some AI here, but had it transcribed in Mandarin, and then translated to English.
It’s possible there’s another copy of this video online, but I’d be surprised if there was another translated one. And that’s a big deal, because you want to understand every nuance of this 20-minute video of a very patient man in a suit exploring every inch and feature of this Santana 2000 GSi.
Here, go ahead and watch. It’s kind of strangely soothing:
It’s not an exciting video, but it has the same sort of appeal that a lot of MotorWeek episodes have, with a silent human pushing every button and pulling every lever and turning every knob in a car.
Plus, it has such exciting sections as the Wheel And Tire Luxuriating In A Field Of Grass scene:
…and the thrilling Gonna Push The Window Lock Button subplot:
…and then there’s just good driving footage showing what I think is a cityscape with worse pollution than China has today:
It’s a fascinating find, a real artifact of a particular era, and knowing where China’s auto industry is today, is especially interesting. Because it wouldn’t be where it is without that pretty simple-looking sedan shown in this video.
Thanks for sharing this, Dogapult!
Still quite a few of these here in Brazil but here the last versions had the fantastic fuel injected 2.0 AP engine. They were beautiful cars to drive back in the day but now they are classed as relics even here and are either top dollar collectables in excellent condition or rusty parts cars being driven on three cylinders and bald tires by a tradie with a ladder on the roof and a backseat full of tools.
VCDs flourished at “Computer Shows’ well into the mid 2000s, there were alsways several vendors with piles of them, all with dubiously sourced content on them. Lots of stuff from Asia like anime or TV shows, but also lots of adult content. I never bothered with them as I had other means of obtaining content at that point, and it seemed like the shadiest portion of the “show” even compared to that guy selling “refurbed” computers that still had asset tags on them from some company or other.
I have been transported in a few of these, and also crashed in one, I always assumed these were more related to first generation Audi 100/200.
Looking at this, it appears they simply transplanted the facia of those more posh models to a Passat.
Is is just me, or does the narrator have a German accent?
The service advisor wore a smoking jacket.
Wow, damn! What a brilliant 90s time capsule of a video.
Ashtrays in the back! Illuminated glovebox! Your modern cars could never!
Some company needs to bring back ashtrays, particularly rear seat ashtrays just for the publicity the outrage would spark.
Good lord this takes me back. When I was a kid every time my parents took me back to visit relatives in China I’d ride in one of these as a taxi car, since in the late 90s and early 2000s almost every single car was either a Santana, a Santana 2000 (this car), or (later) a Santana 3000. Almost all the seats were covered in a bed sheet-like cloth cover, and the driver had a partition with plexiglass that separated them from the passenger and back seats.
I remember loving the blockiness of the overall design in the original Santana, it was just so 90s. Then when the 2000/3000 came around it was still blocky compared to US cars at the time, but had some subtle curves that made it seem oh so modern. I recall when I was a teen I really wanted to import one to the US when I was older. I had no idea they were so underpowered, and since the used Chinese car market doesn’t really have a long lifespan, these cars are much harder to see nowadays.
Also I haven’t heard the term VCD in ages. China LOVED them as media storage back in the 2000s, I still remember TV dramas and shows that were sold in gigantic boxes that had 50-60 of those VCD discs for the entire season (IIRC DVD never really picked up as a media format in China).
Thanks for the cool trip down memory lane Jason!
The Passat had a longitudinal engine vs. transverse in the Jetta. Not the same chassis, despite some styling similarities.
The longer wheelbase and rear door gives these a greenhouse and profile that reminds me a lot of the later Volvo 7/9XX series.
Oye como va.
Poorly.
Bueno, arreglar?
Dos mil, sÃ.
At least the ride was smooth. Just like the ocean under the moon.
Jettas are slowly being replaced by domestic brands in China. Quite fascinating to a relatively early Chinese made vw film. Almost doesn’t shock you old Geely said a car is easy just two couches and 4 wheels. There were some people in the us buying whole VW create engines on Chinese sourcing websites because they were so cheap.
Is that a Passat? Because I always thought these were based off of Mk2 Jettas, just looking at how the side profile lines up. Or doesn’t line up, since the trunk is SO much higher than the hood.
They also made Jettas, and an updated version of it did look similar to this incarnation of the Passat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Jetta_(China)#/media/File:VWJettaPeking2002Fram.jpg
Sold as the VW Quantum in the US, Passat elsewhere
It was also sold as Santana in at least one European country (Switzerland). However they sold very few of these, compared to how popular the hatchback Passat was.
The sedan version of the Passat B2 was sold as Santana in Europe. The fastback and wagon variants retained the Passat name. The European branches of Volkswagen dropped the Santana badge in 1985 (except in Spain apparently). I think my brother’s godfather went Passat B1 > Audi 80 B1 > VW Santana B2 > Audi 80 B3 > VW Passat B4 between the late 70ies and mid 1990ies.
That’s little solace.
VCD was an excellent format to hide certain media collection from your parents. Ask me how I know.
I remember VCDs, but I don’t think I ever actually saw one in person.
The background music is classic muzak. I expected 90s muzak to be different in China than in the US. Randomly interesting cultural detail.
Good on ya dogapult.
Funny thing, I got a copyright strike for one of those tracks, that, per youtube, blocks it from being able to be viewed in Russia and Belarus.
+1, congrats on the feature! The music was such a delightful, upbeat touch.
We lived in China in the late ’90’s. Passat’s (1st gen) and Jetta’s (2nd gen) were the most popular cars then. We bought a Jetta, since they were a generation ahead of the Passat. The Jetta was a 5 MT vs. 4 MT in the Passat. Also the Passat came in very few colors.
The Chinese didn’t build them any better than elsewhere. The Jetta’s speedo cable and carb both fell off, which seemed typical of weird problems we had with other VW/Audi’s back then.
I was there in the 2000s, and those Santana taxis were the Chinese equivalent of Crown Vics. I must have ridden in one nearly every day. I bet I still have some of those 90s thin cash register style receipts somewhere!
I don’t think at any point in my life, in any of the various places of the world I’ve visited has a single make/model dominated the streets like the VW Santana in China circa 2002. It felt like 75%+ of the traffic you’d see would be either the first gen or Santana 2000.
Taxis, police cruisers, private passenger cars, this was it. Really brings back memories.
Yes you’re right. In the late 90s the only cars were Daihatsu Charade taxis then the Santana took over as ‘the people’s car’ very quickly. Taxi evolution has been pretty simple in China – Daihatsu Charade – Santana (for a good fifteen years) – Santana/Jetta – VW Touran – Roewe iE5
And if you’re in Shenzhen, the BYD e6 and later 2nd gen e6.
There was some wacko ranting about “good riddance to CDs”, not too long ago, on some obscure site I visit.
Was there music?
Perhaps “Oye Como Va”?
or “Put Your Lights On”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCBS5EtszYI
There WAS music, and it was exactly the same terrible backing track you’d expect to hear in USA if you were on hold for the local Midas or watching softcore porn.
Amusingly, I got a copyright strike for one of the backing tracks and the video is blocked in Russia and Belarus.
And if you said this life ain’t good enough.
Glad I’m not the only one who thought that
For what it’s worth, the Chinese pronunciation of Santana is quite different than that of the eponymous guitarist in English.
You can hear it in the video ~1:20 but it’s more
“Sahn-tah-nah” (stress on the third syllable)
than
“San-tan-uh” (stress on the second syllable)